Our award from the Equality Challenge Unit

The Department of Architecture has been successful in achieving the Athena SWAN Bronze Award which recognises our commitment and advancement on gender equality, including representation, progression of students into academia, career journey and working environment for all staff.

Our award submission was prepared using the new Athena SWAN criteria by a team of staff and students under the leadership of Dr Cristina González-Longo and the guidance of Annie McLaughlin, the University of Strathclyde Gender Equality Officer.

The Bronze Award was presented at a ceremony at the University of Liverpool on 12th December 2016 (image above). There was a 60 per cent success rate for all applicants using the new expanded criteria, which includes gender equality for professional and support staff, as well as academic staff. Dr Cristina González-Longo, the Convenor of the of Athena SWAN self-assessment team reported,

We are really proud to have received the Athena SWAN Bronze Award and delighted to be part of this group of universities, research institutes and departments committed to tackling gender inequality in higher education. Our staff and students are committed to working towards the advancement of gender equality in every area. The challenge in the architecture profession is that the number of women decreases as they move up the career ladder. We need to address this issue and help to empower our female students to progress in the profession.

In Semester 2 (Jan-Aug) the Year Four students of the A_Space team curated an exhibition of student projects (across all years) to hang in the public area in the department. Aware of our new Athena Award they decided to assess the display and add a gender information panel below the introduction describing the exhibition. The excellent projects selected to go on show had reflected the (approximately 50/50) gender equality of the student cohort currently in our department.